At least 33 people were killed on Saturday after gunmen attacked a village in northwestern Nigeria's Kaduna state, a local official confirmed to the AP agency on Sunday.
Luka Binniyat, spokesman for the South Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), said gunmen from the Fulani ethnic group - one of the most populous in West Africa - who attacked the village in large numbers, also wounded a number indeterminate number of villagers and razed many houses.
"Those thugs attacked our village again yesterday. A large number of Fulani herdsmen invaded the village of Runji, in the Zango Kataf area, and shot many villagers dead," Binniyat told EFE by telephone.
"They had written to the villagers that they were coming. They told them they would visit them to sow terror and they carried out their threat around 10:00 p.m. local time (21:00 GMT)," the spokesman explained.
Binniyat explained that almost everyone had fled the village for fear of being attacked again, noting that the wounded had been taken to hospital for medical attention. Similarly, he accused security officers of helping herdsmen launch constant attacks against the population of southern Kaduna by failing to pursue the attackers.
"While yesterday's attacks lasted, there was no military intervention. As usual, they only came to patrol hours after our people had been massacred," added the civil society spokesperson.
Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Internal Affairs, also confirmed the attack and deaths in a statement, but did not specify the number of deaths, injuries, or houses burned. According to a report that the army sent to the Kaduna state government, "the troops had a fierce encounter with the attackers," the statement said.
"Pending a detailed report, Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who received the preliminary report in the early hours of Sunday, has condemned the killings as unacceptable and unjustifiable," Aruwan added.
Some Nigerian states - especially in the center and north-west of the country - are subjected to incessant attacks by "bandits", a term used in the country to name criminal gangs that commit robberies, cattle rustling and mass kidnappings for large ransoms.
In addition, the fight for the appropriation of natural resources between nomadic herders and local farmers due to the scarcity of land is another of the main causes of violence in the country.
Added to this insecurity is that caused since 2009 by the activity of the jihadist group Boko Haram in the northeast of the country and, as of 2016, also by its split, the Islamic State in the West African Province (ISWAP, for its acronym in English). ).
